Big package, big disaster

There is a lot of debate about what happened on that 48-yard touchdown pass to Jacksonville’s Jason Hill last week. The Jaguars were in their two-tight-end, one-receiver “Big package” and the Raiders, anticipating a run, took cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Stanford Routt off the field and put five safeties on.

Stevie Brown, Mike Mitchell, Hiram Eugene and Tyvon Branch were playing the run on the 2nd-and-18 play, with Michael Huff handling coverage duties against the one receiver, Hill. Eugene said the Raiders tried out the defense for the first time time last week during practice.

David Garrard threw it up and Hill got past Huff, who looked like he could have made a play on the ball and didn’t. Huff would give up another TD eight minutes later and said it was “the worst third quarter of my life.”

Using five safeties on 2nd-and-18 might be one of the worst decisions of the coaching staff’s lives, but coach Tom Cable Monday tried to say Nnamdi Asomugha’s lingering ankle issues may have played a part.

Have you used that safety package before?

Cable: “We’ve done it from time to time. Most of it is issues with injury. In the past we’ve had three safeties out there with Nnamdi as that corner but with some of the issues going on just felt like that was the best way to do it. We were misaligned a little bit.”

So, was it a case of Nnamdi’s health?

Cable: “More than anything. Absolutely more than anything.”

Problem is, that doesn’t explain why cornerbacks Routt or Chris Johnson wasn’t on the field. And Asomugha Sunday said he is taking enough drugs to numb up the ankle on game days and it wasn’t a factor as to why he wasn’t on the field that play.

“What they were showing throughout the week when we were watching film,” Asomugha said, “was that when they got in that personnel where there’s only one receiver in the game, they want to pound the ball. And they pounded it, for the most part. They only threw twice out of a handful of times that they did it.

“So, what we did was, we put all our safeties in so that we could be a lot bigger for the run. A lot of times when they did that, you would see Michael Huff in at corner, and then me and Stanford would come out for the run. Then they hit the play-action pass on us, but we have faith in Mike in those situations. That’s why we did it.”

So, your ankle didn’t come into play at all?

Asomugha: “I guess you’re fine as long as you’ve got drugs in you.”

Eugene said the Raiders shouldn’t have been surprised by the long pass.

“We’d watched enough film to know they like to take a shot in that alignment now and then,” Eugene said. “We just didn’t cover it well enough.”